Program Design

PROGRAM DESIGN

Group 1: Self-Directed Learning

EDAC 634

Amnah Habib, Shawn Kalwat, Scott Kenney, LaKrisha Perry

Contributions to Group 1 Program Design

Amnah Habib – Introduction

Shawn Kalwat – Group Lead, Objectives, Table 2, Table 3

Scott Kenney – Rationale-Features of Programs, Program, Reflection, Table 3

LaKrisha Perry – Rationale-Features of Literature, Program Examples, Proofing

Introduction

This program is designed for elementary education teachers in curriculum and instruction who desire to learn more about differentiated learning approaches through self-directed learning (SDL). A workshop will be utilized to educate elementary education teachers in curriculum and instruction through the continuing education credit courses.  The workshop will allow the students to collaborate with other students, based on their respective individual areas of study.  The research will include not only studies that students are able to research on their own through technology and literature, but will also include resources available to them such as usage of webcams and conference calls to collaborate with other students.  Additionally, trained program facilitators will be available to offer assistance and guidance to self-directed learners. The goals of the program are for elementary education teachers to be able to utilize technology to complete continuing education courses and to create a program that other educators can draw upon to complete their continuing education credits.

 Students will have opportunities to independently explore areas of interest related to curriculum and instruction.  The students will determine which aspect of Curriculum and Instruction they will research.  Students will participate in research outside of a classroom, however, a trained course facilitator will be available to guide them and offer assistance if they need it.  The course facilitator will also be able to put them in contact with other students who are involved in the same SDL course, so that they may professionally collaborate.  The course facilitator will provide a database of resources and collaboration possibilities so that students are provided a full and complete learning experience to supplement their independent study on SDL.

Objectives

Technology is a useful tool in SDL. Technology enables students from around the globe to coordinate projects and ideas in ways that were not possible in the past. SDL utilizes technology through the usage of internet, web cam videos, and conference calls or face time. Each of these mediums allows the SDL student to remain independent to complete the tasks of the class and to work collaboratively with other SDL students in group projects.

The objective of this program will be to utilize technological mediums for elementary education Teachers (EET) to work collaboratively in the completion of a workshop. The EET will use the internet, webcams and conference calls to coordinate activities to complete the workshop. The workshop will include a project that will help the EET to use SDL to complete continuing education requirements for their teaching certifications. The workshop is designed to educate EET about how technology and SDL can be used to help complete continuing education requirements.

The workshop will allow the EET to be able to complete their continuing education requirements when they graduate from the program. The usage of SDL for the workshop will allow students to work independently but still be able to collaborate via technology. The workshop will require the usage of group meetings on a weekly basis via webcam to coordinate project activities. After the meetings, each member will work independently via SDL to complete their piece of the project. The goal of this hybrid program is to allow educators to brainstorm and coordinate activities but to still allow the student to use SDL to complete tasks.

Because this is a pilot program, the EET will be helping to benchmark and error proof the system. Benchmarks for the workshop will include best practices for webcam collaboration, SDL prompting and project milestones to ensure the project is complete by the end of class. The EET will error proof the system by using the new software and finding weaknesses in the software and technology that can be fixed by our IT team.

The outcome for the workshop will be the ability of new teachers to utilize this new technology and SDL to complete continuing education credits. As part of adult learners being self-directed in the workshop, the usage of collaboration with other classmates will help students work through challenges and aid them in the completion of their own individual tasks.

Rationale - Literature

Self-directed learning can be more effective for elementary education teachers when utilized appropriately.  Technology is increasingly coming to the forefront of adult education.  However, many adults have not learned, been taught, or trained in areas of technology to be successful to utilize technology in their educational journey.  According to Hiemstra (2003):

“The learning orientations of today's younger people tied to expectations of what the Web promises, and even the growing pervasiveness of virtual information in almost any location may actually make self-directed approaches to teaching and learning the default norm.”

Technological skills of the teachers should be first assessed before attempting to incorporate technology in the SDL curriculum.  With a better understanding of each teacher’s abilities as they relate to technology, educators can be better prepared to meet the teachers' needs.  Assessments, will at times, find the teachers are not prepared to enter into a SDL class utilizing technology as the source of delivering instruction.  “Students’ prior knowledge can dictate their readiness to learn new material” (Mello, 2016).

Not all of the teachers are prepared to enter into this type of learning environment.  Administrators must “assist the learner in becoming more self-aware and able to assess his or her skills, assets, and liabilities” (Bryan, 2015).  Steps should be taken to understand the knowledge and needs of the teachers before entering this learning environment.  Assessing each individually will determine their readiness for technology based SDL.  From the assessment results, some will find they are not quite ready to enter into the SDL technological learning environment.  Preparation for these teachers is the key to their success in the learning environment.  The elementary teachers that find they are not quite ready for the environment should be allowed an opportunity to take an instructional session to prepare them for the technological requirements.  This additional step will prove to be beneficial not only for the teacher, but for the instructor as they will be able to deliver information with confidence in knowing the teacher as a student is prepared to receive information with an understanding of how to utilize the delivered content.  As stated by Bryan (2015):

“When technology is infused into the curriculum, it can promote development of skills and attitudes for lifelong, self-directed learning.”

As individuals enter this continuing education program, it may be thought instructor guidance is not needed on the same level as their undergraduate instruction.  This is correct, to certain limit.  Instructor guidance when determining the direction of which the instructor desires is essentially necessary.  Online videos, discussion boards, and the ability to collaborate with individuals are essential to the technological SDL environment. However, understanding the desired outcome of the instructor is also essential to the success of the individual student.

Rationale - Features of Practice Programs

Using different technological mediums to guide self-directed learners is what our program will be based around.  We have found several online learning examples that use technology to support the idea of learning collaboratively, but also containing several self-guided methods.

The learning website, http://onlinestaffdevelopment.com, emphasizes a lot of what our program will be centered around.  The website is generated for elementary teachers who seek out professional development-behavior interventions, motivational tactics in classrooms, progress monitoring, and student success by using a proprietary online system that lets you work collaboratively and independently.  There are several courses offered without physically attending workshops or educational conferences.  The benefits for such online professional development are as follows: it allows teachers to participate on their own schedules, at their own pace, from any location with internet access, and schools recognize the cost savings over live professional development.  This particular educational website allows for certain teachers to navigate through certain areas of instruction via “Home Page”, course handouts, videos, reading resources or literature pieces, and reflective questions that can be answered at any time.  Once the elementary teacher completes their course they will take an online quiz for the course to be considered complete.  There are a series of featured presenters that specialize in each course subject and there are several Online Help Desks offered to help guide teachers through some of the technical problems if they arise.

Another example of an online self-directed method of learning for adults in education were Canter classes.  This was another series of online classes that were developed for educators to enhance their professional development and instructional practices.  It was focused on self-paced distance learning models that allowed for teachers to study when it was most convenient for them whether before school, after-school, or during prep.  These courses offered many routes of instruction with several online videos, webcam discussions, online postings and reflections, and alternative assessments towards the end of a course or topic.  Unfortunately, due to the evolving of state requirements for certain licensing procedures, Canter classes ceased to continue to offer services in 2014.  However, these Canter classes were solely created to offer many more opportunities for educators to increase their professional development and craft as self-guided methods for adult learners.

Program

After analyzing the two examples, we decided to create web-based workshops and programs that will allow educators (primarily elementary) to continue their education.  These workshops will allow teachers to sign-up for specific elementary educational courses (response to interventions, differentiation, evidence-based practices, etc.) that will allow them the ability to renew their teaching requirements online.  Once an EET has registered for a course, they will be allowed to access certain online resources that will guide them through the course.  There will be collaborative learning efforts in which EET will connect via web cams, discussion boards, and conference calls to coordinate project activities.  After the completion of the group work, teachers will be guided through the online program and continue on to a specific course at their own pace.  This type of instruction will be self-guided in that there will be specific videos to watch, specific readings to research, and critical questions to reflect on.  At the completion of the group work and SDL components, teachers will then be allowed to earn continuing education credit hours for the renewal of their teaching license by completing different types of assessments.  Our goal is to help elementary teachers become more self-guided in their learning by creating a user-friendly program which offers numerous self-help desks and instructors offering assistance when needed.  This will allow adults to feel more at ease with using technology, and they can also use their peers for assistance via online discussion boards.  This also reemphasizes the self-direction piece of adult learning. Teachers can use their technological resources as guidance to solve problems along the way.

Reflection

As a group, we feel adults learn more when they are motivated and self-directed in the learning process.  With our program, we will emphasize a lot of those principles for self-guided learning with elementary educators.  We feel technology is one of the most important self-guided tools for adults to learn; therefore, we want technology to be a focal part for our program.  Along with technology, we believe SDL can be more than just learning on your own.  Additionally, we want to stress the significance of collaborative learning amongst teachers with technology.  Therefore, an important piece of our program will be to interweave individualized instruction and collaborative learning through technology.

            Lastly, our group was a little slow to get started on putting things together for our program design.  We had some members step up their game in communicating to the group, and others that can increased their time management for upcoming assignments for our program.  Communication will be key for our group moving forward and we look forward to developing the implementation process.

Table 2: Literature Review

Main Themes of Literature	Application of Main Themes in Practice
Defining self-directed learning	Depending on how you define the term will determine how it will be
Taking ownership of learning	SDL requires students to take ownership of their education
Motivation is intrinsic	Internal motivation is the key to students being successful in SDL
Benefits from usage of technology	Technology allows SDL learners to interact and collaborate

Table 3: Summary of Program Design

Purpose	Group 1 will create a program to aid teachers in using technology to create collaborative learning through a workshop for continuing education credit.
Objective	The objective of the program is to create a collaborative and self-directed learning platform to allow teachers to have interaction via technological resources to complete a workshop for continuing education.
Rationale – Ideas from literature	Technology has created a medium that can all adult learners to work both independently and collaboratively. This program is designed to use technology to complete a workshop that will require collaborative learning through web-based technology.
Rationale – Features from practical cases	Online staff development programs for educators allow for teachers to achieve professional development through self-paced courses that are more cost effective. Canter Classes also allowed for teachers to enhance their educational careers by renewing their license through online courses that were centered around self-paced lessons.
Highlights and the major components of the program	Our Program will allow for teachers to continue their education by earning credit hours upon the completion of specific web-based workshops and courses that are based around collaborative group work and self-directed learning methods.

REFERENCES

Bryan, V. C. (2015). Self-Directed Learning and Technology. Education Digest,

          80(6), 42-44. Retrieved from

          http://proxy.bsu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx

          direct=true&db=tfh&AN=100899083&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Hiemstra, R. (2003). More Than Three Decades of Self-Directed Learning: From Whence Have We Come?  Adult Learning, 14(4), 5-8.

Mello, L. (2016). Fostering postgraduate student engagement: online resources

          supporting self-directed learning in a diverse cohort. Research In Learning

          Technology, 24.  doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/rlt.v24.29366